What website shoudl I use to find the best flights?

[KatyMac]

Or even what flights actually exist?

DD has to fly on a specific day but can fly from several different airports (Manchester Birmingham London airports or anywhere in between)

I always use sky scanner. Just clear your cookies if going in and out to make sure the prices don’t go up.

Thanks - found a flight from Birmingham that saves over £100!!

Came on to say Skyscanner! Normally how we decide where we go!

I find travel republic good for the 'must fly to a certain place on a certain day but I can go from more than one airport' searches.

You can then filter the results to make sure you come back to the same airport and to avoid any take off/landing times that don't work for you, such as arriving very late at night etc.

Kayak.co.uk is usually even cheaper than Skyscanner.

Google flights.
www.google.co.uk/flights/

I do use Skyscanner if I just want an idea of where is cheapest to fly to on a certain date or month - select home airport, tick nearby airports, select direct flights only put Everywhere or a Country in the to box, click search.

But because Skyscanner uses cached data from previous searches, the info/prices can be up to 15 days out of date. They also search a huge list of OTA's which makes it slow plus it's almost always better to book direct - so especially when the flight is shorthaul on a budget airline (Easyjet, Ryanair, Jet2 etc) you only really need to know the price offered directly by those airlines as you won't find their flights cheaper anywhere else.

So I much prefer Google flights - you can see the price at a glance for every date and the price is up to date, you can track prices so you get an email when they change, they only show the airline (direct) prices, so it's faster.

I then just book direct with the relevant airline.

For longhaul flights I will compare, track etc as above but then use completesavings for 10% discount (cashback) and book direct. This means that even if an OTA is slightly cheaper you can usually still beat the price and book direct (So no third party to then say the flights are no longer available or they are but at a higher price and you need to pay extra etc etc). Book direct and you know the price you pay wont suddenly go up and you deal directly with the airline if you need to make any changes etc, rather than having to contact a third party, wait for them to contact the airline, wait for the airline to get back to them, wait for the OTA to get back to you... If you sign up with airlines mailing lists you will also get an email when any offers/sales are on.